Brits Short of Gas Gear

Protection kit for British troops in Iraq would have run out in just two weeks had Saddam used poison gas. Major General Robin Brims, British land Chief in the Gulf, told senior officers of his ‘urgent concern’ about the supplies of chemical and biological gear three days before the invasion in March. The damning revelation means that British troops were put at risk of huge casualties. A furious police chief serving as a Territorial Army major exposed the scandal in secret evidence to MPs last November. Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley also told the Defence Committee there were no helicopters on standby to lift casualties. Four soldiers badly injureed by a US A10 jet had to wait 90 minutes for urgent care. He told MPs:

‘I heard the radio call screaming to ‘dust off’ a helicopter.  I then witnessed the staff of my brigade working in increasing desperation.  Eventually we got two helicopters to stop a task, refuel and take a medical team to the scene’.

Mr Hurley also revealed the amount of batteries to power chemical weapons detector units was

‘completely inadequate’.

Asked why he came forward, Mr Hurley said:

‘I felt it was my moral duty to bring these issues to the attention of the Government’.

He refused to comment further. Lib Dem Mike Hancock said last night:

‘The policy of just enough, just in time is just not good enough. ‘Geoff Hoon should now think very carefully about his position’.

With acknowledgements to the Daily Mirror